no the war on poverty was an effort that started in the s to better the lives of the american lower class it actually made leeps and bounds in improving american lives with such programs as social security the elementary and secondary education act and the beginning of food stamps the program did well until the s when reagan shifted focus to the drug war and hyper predators and slowly stripped away benefits parading the idea of the welfare queens stereotype or as i prefer to think of it the lazy nigger stereotype because lets be honest thats what it was just given a new name to make it more pc to not alienate the centrists